Path of progress

STOCKTON - Just a decade ago, Donald Ruiz was building his dream home - a 1,740-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bath castle on West Hazelton Street in Boggs Tract.

Kevin Parrish

STOCKTON - Just a decade ago, Donald Ruiz was building his dream home - a 1,740-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bath castle on West Hazelton Street in Boggs Tract.

It was everything he and his wife, Gloria, wanted: a fireplace, custom cabinets and floors, a specially designed patio and yard. Next door, Donald Ruiz also built a second home for his daughter.

This week, both came tumbling down.

"I saw my house, with the claw hitting the roof, and I felt really sad. I felt it in my heart," Gloria Ruiz said. "I kept saying, 'Oh my God.' But I'm happy. We got out from under an upside-down mortgage."

Donald Ruiz called Hazelton a "community within a community."

The Ruizes haven't moved far, just around the corner to Sonora Street. "We love this neighborhood," Donald Ruiz said. "People are nice. There's not much crime. Everybody looks out for one another. We're anchored down."

They made the move as part of the first stage of a three-year, $196 million construction project known as the Highway 4 Extension. Sixty right-of-way property parcels, 40 of them residential, need to be cleared through eminent-domain proceedings.

The work will transform Boggs Tract.

No one in the neighborhood was surprised by the demolition - informational public meetings started years ago - but that didn't take away this week's bittersweet experiences.

The one-mile project has partners in the California Department of Transportation, the San Joaquin Council of Governments, the city of Stockton and county government.

The freeway extension will provide big-rig trucks and automobiles a straight shot from Interstate 5 and the Crosstown Freeway to the Port of Stockton. Right now, vehicles wind their way along surface streets.

At least two businesses aren't going quietly.

Located a half-mile east of the Boggs Tract residential neighborhood are Mel's Auto Dismantlers and Debco Auto Wrecking Inc. They sit side by side on Navy Drive. Both are multigenerational businesses that have been around for decades.

"They're trying to steal what a little old lady and man took 50 years to build," said 30-year-old Adam Bedford, whose great-grandfather founded Debco in 1962. "We're going to court. They're trying to take everything from us - and they've only offered us $1,000."

The state is obligated to offer at least $1,000, even if environmental cleanup is involved and exceeds the value of the property.

On an adjacent site, Mike Davis said his dad's 25-year-old dismantling business received the same offer.

"It kills me. We have to fight," said Davis, 43, born and raised in Stockton. "This is my life. I was planning to operate this business for my livelihood and keep it as a family business." He said his father, Mel Davis, 73, is worrying too much about what is happening.

Debco sits on five acres. Frank Bedford, Adam's uncle and the wrecking yard's sales manager, was frustrated and angry Wednesday.

"This is a freeway to nowhere," he said. "Why won't the state offer us fair market value? Four years ago, we had our business appraised at $1.25 million. I've worked here 35 years, my whole adult life."

Both companies have hired law firms and plan to oppose the takeover.

"Our right-of-way department has been working hard to come up with amicable resolutions with as many property owners as possible," said Chantel Miller, a spokeswoman with Caltrans. "And if we're in litigation, we don't comment."

Kevin Sheridan, project manager with the Council of Governments, said, "The state has a process (to deal) with contaminated soils. It involves deducting the amount deemed for cleanup from the value of the property."

Actual freeway construction isn't scheduled until next spring and it will take about three years to build the new stretch of elevated freeway.

Sixty-year-old Evelyn Williams Ary will have a front-row seat. She lives at the west end of Hazelton and her home was spared from demolition. She was watching this week as familiar homes came down - and childhood memories came back.

"It was kind of emotional. My dad purchased our property in 1947," Ary said. "Those houses have been there forever. I can name each person who lived on that street.

"I live in the next block. They missed us. I'm going to watch this freeway being built from my living room window."

Ary and Gloria Ruiz, also 60, starting in kindergarten, attended Washington Elementary School together. The two women stood near each other this week watching while Hazelton Street houses were torn down.

"We once had a cable man come by our home, and say it looked like someone picked up our house in north Stockton and dropped it down in Boggs Tract," Ruiz said.

"I felt like I was living in that movie, 'Out of Africa.' My husband put lights on the arches in the backyard. We had a banana-leaf fan and blue tile in the patio. There were flowers and a Chinese maple tree."

Those are memories now. Donald and Gloria Ruiz each admitted it's time to move on with their lives and build a new future on nearby Sonora Street.

Being able to stay in Boggs Tract has been important to the couple married 42 years.

"We've been here all our lives," said Donald Ruiz, retired at 64. "We know everybody in the neighborhood. My wife was in love with that house when I built it, but, you know, you can't stand in the way of progress."